#twitter generation

New Post has been published on http://www.newsnish.com/international/books-will-survive-the-twitter-generation-says-professor-who-has-rewritten-25-top-novels-as-140-character-tweets/

Books Will Survive the Twitter Generation says Professor who has Rewritten 25 top novels as 140-character tweets

Books will continue to thrive despite the rise of short-form social media because young people will start to value privacy as they grow up, according to a leading academic. Professor John Sutherland has rewritten 25 bestselling novels in the form of single tweets – but he insists there is still a future for full-length books.

He suggests the popularity of social networks can be ascribed to a youthful urge to connect with others, which tends to fade over time. And he also points to the popularity of long television series such as Breaking Bad and True Detective as evidence that the public still has an appetite for complex and involved stories.

Professor Sutherland, the Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London, told The Times that the Twitter generation would inevitably get bored of non-stop networking. ‘People want to get together and get close,’ he said. ‘If you see a whole load of horses together, they rub together – it’s what young people do. As you get older, privacy becomes more important.’

The 76-year-old don added: ‘One of the things that strikes me is as telephone communications become shorter, narrative is becoming terribly long. Look at Breaking Bad or True Detective. These are not soap operas. These are narrative stories with a beginning, middle and an end.’ Professor Sutherland compiled his tweet versions of leading novels, including The Da Vinci Code and Bridget Jones’s Diary, following a survey carried out by Samsung Galaxy S6 edge.

The poll found that the first Harry Potter book is the most popular beach read for the summer, followed by teen favourite The Hunger Games and Gillian Flynn’s blockbuster Gone Girl. The Samsung survey found that one in 10 young adults have never read a novel, while just a quarter plan to read a book while lounging on the beach or by the poolside.

By contrast, three quarters of those aged 18-25 will take their phones on holiday, and they expect to check the device 14 times a day on average. Professor Sutherland said: ‘This breakdown of the 25 most popular beach reads of all time is the truest representation of modern day pulp fiction, allowing today’s easily distracted young holidaymakers to enjoy the most popular summer books in an instant.

‘And who knows, maybe they may just inspire some people to pick up an old-fashioned book at some point.’

A Baby Boomer from a Nuclear Family

Doesn’t it sound weird?

To be a baby boomer from a nuclear family?

But, it’s true, and it makes me wonder what this current generation is going to be called?

At first I thought maybe ‘The iPhone generation,’ because everybody wants the latest gimcrack. Or, the ipad generation, or something else like that.

baby boomers

 // Then I thought maybe it would be the ‘Google generation.’

Or, the Twitter…

I recently listened to Peter Shankman, of HARO fame, make a presentation. He discussed the diminishing attention span of America.

I am a typical Gen-Xer. My generation was knocked for having short attention spans at about two minutes and 30 seconds. It is the approximate length of a music video on MTV, back when they used to play music videos. Today, we have the Twitter generation with an attention span of 140 characters. It takes about two and a half seconds to read a tweet.

For a client, it means consumer communication has to be focused. We know that even the news media communicates in seven-10 second soundbites. Can you answer the following questions about your company in a soundbite:

Who are you?

What do you do?

Why is that important?